Бостон готовит масштабную кампанию по уборке и помощи студентам в день массового переезда

For some cities, Sept. 1 is just an ordinary day. In Boston, however, the first day of September is marked by scores of U-Hauls, anxious parents, eager students and plenty of furniture abandoned in the rain. With the city home to more than 160,000 students and 30 colleges and universities, the rental market is beholden to a vast population of young people. Uniquely, about 70% of landlords coordinate the rentals to align with academic calendars. This allows students to move in, get situated and start school, Boston Pads CEO Demetrios Salpoglou told Boston.com. Even City Hall dubs Sept. 1 “moving day.” “Very fortunately, I re-signed here, so I only had to do the Sept. 1 move-in once,” said Natalie Scannella, who graduated from Northeastern this May. “It was a lot.” Many residents said moving day is historically chaotic. But as people navigate this time of chaos and excitement, there are citywide and local resources available. “For the next couple of days, we have a very increased workload where we try to take care of the students and their move-in needs,” said Mike Whitmore, a Boston Public Works employee in an interview with The Huntington News. It isn’t just students who switch homes on moving day — some of their personal belongings do as well. “Street shopping” has become a practiced tradition throughout Boston. People moving out leave their unwanted furniture, decor and appliances on curbs to be given a second life elsewhere or thrown away. This custom is so common that it even earned the name, “Allston Christmas.” “I love those stools so much … But I have nowhere to put them in my new space, and they’re not fitting in our car … I was like, ‘it’s not worth it,’” Scannella said, gesturing to four metal barstools on the curb. “There’s other stuff that I would rather take.” Residents can walk around neighborhoods with dense student populations and find no shortage of items free for the taking. From air hockey tables to drying racks and dressers, the streets are littered with discarded items. “I’ve done lots of furniture shopping on the streets; people get rid of a lot of good stuff,” said Mackenzie Calhoun, a fifth-year environmental science student at Northeastern. Dennis Roche, superintendent of waste reduction and code enforcement for Boston Public Works, cautioned at an Aug. 27 press conference that items left on the street aren’t necessarily in working order and are sometimes discarded specifically because they are broken or unsafe. He recommended student-to-student handoffs as a safer alternative. “It’s very exciting, but then you approach things and they look kinda dirty or broken, and it’s kinda sad,” said Rebecca Segal, a third-year physical therapy graduate student at Northeastern. More than 50 code enforcement officers will be out across the city through the move-in period to educate residents and issue violations when necessary for improper disposal, according to Roche and Tania Del Rio, commissioner of the Boston Inspectional Services Department, who spoke at the conference. The City officials briefed the public before moving day on the resources available to new and returning students during move-in season. “We know this is a really special time in your life as a student,” Del Rio said at the conference. “Whether you’re a student here for the first time or you’re returning, welcome home.” The five assembled officials said for nearly any moving issue from housing conditions, trash and recycling, towing, parking, rodents, bed bugs, zoning complaints or fire safety concerns, residents can find information on the Boston 311 app, by calling 311 or dialing 617-635-4500. Conor Newman, deputy director for the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Services, said that starting Sept. 1, neighborhood liaisons will welcome new residents to their communities, keep streets clear for moving trucks and distribute “Welcome to Boston” guides with information on city services. Among these services is a mattress pickup. Newman emphasized that recycling mattresses and box springs is a state requirement, but the City does not collect either with curbside trash. Over the next two weeks, city crews expect to collect more than 5,000 mattresses — about 15% of the department’s annual mattress volume — along with roughly 8,000 additional tons of trash and nearly 2,000 additional tons of recycling, on top of the City’s normal workload, according to Roche. To handle the surge, the City is adding trucks, crews and collection capacity in neighborhoods with the heaviest move-in activity. “Working together, we can welcome thousands of new residents while keeping Boston’s neighborhoods clean, safe and accessible,” Roche said. This annual “moving day” is both highly anticipated and dreaded by residents and city employees alike, but resources like rodent inspections and U-Haul information are improving each year. “It’s hectic and it’s stressful … it’s a mess, but we get through it,” Segal said.